(WBBM NEWSRADIO) - James Lewis, the main suspect in the Tylenol murders that gripped the Chicago area in the early 80s, has died.
He was interviewed by police as recently as last fall, but James Lewis was never charged with the murders of seven people in 1982 who took laced Tylenol.
Lewis was convicted of attempted extortion for sending a letter to Johnson & Johnson. He denied being the killer in a 1984 jailhouse interview with CBS-2’s Mike Parker.
“I have been the officially designated evil one by the Justice Department. When one gains that status, if there is such a thing as a status, it’s a horrible status to have,” Lewis said. “When one is the focus of that much hatred, it is virtually impossible for a person to convince very many people that he is not as he has been described.”
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Lewis died at his home near Boston at age 76.
Former federal prosecutor Jeremy Margolis told the Tribune he was saddened to learn of the news, not because Lewis is dead, but because he didn’t die in prison.
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